New Tesla Roadster: 0-60 In 1.9 Seconds, 620-Mile Range, $200,000

And it’s apparently coming in 2020.

Following the reveal of the Tesla Semi, Elon Musk pulled out a huge surprise: the new Roadster. Yes, the Tesla Roadster is back, and we’ll apparently see it on the road sometime in 2020. The performance is said to be absolutely staggering. Whether or not it’s worth the hype, well, we’ll leave that up to you. But these preliminary details indicate something super cool is on the way.

New Tesla Roadster

Let’s cut right to the chase:

7,376 pound-feet of torque. Yes, you read that correctly.

0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, making it the quickest production car in the world.

0-100 mph in 4.2 seconds.

Quarter mile in 8.8 seconds, which beats every other production car.

250+ mph top speed.

620 miles of highway range.

New Tesla Roadster

As Elon points out, according to this data, you’ll be able to drive the new Roadster from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back on one charge, at highway speeds. And by the way, these numbers are only for the prototype car shown tonight. The production car could be even quicker, with more range, and a higher top end. We’ll believe it when we see it, of course, but man, that’s incredible.

The new Roadster will use three electric motors – one in the front and two in the back – giving it through-the-road all-wheel drive. The incredible power comes courtesy of a 200-kilowatt-hour battery. True to its name, you’ll be able to remove the roof. And for added practicality, it’ll seat four people… well, okay, two and some grocery bags.

New Tesla Roadster

Want one? You’ll need $50,000 to reserve one, and the base price will be $200,000. Or you can be one of 1,000 people to order a Founders Series car, which costs a full $250,000, right up front.

See it for yourself in the high-res gallery below, or head to Tesla’s site for more information.

Good observation. Its physically impossible to jam a 200kWh battery with TODAY’s chemistry into that Roadster.

So the only logical conclusion I can draw, (> 99% confidence) is that Tesla has in hand a working prototype cell to match their prototype Roadster, that at least DOUBLES today’s energy density and weight ratios. What is it, a solid cell? Maybe. Who knows?

Whatever it is, it may take 2 years to get into mass production at the Gigafactory, likely first for the massive Tesla truck then for the new Roadster.

Sounds cool. But the announcement timing doesn’t bode well for the M3 getting into mass production anytime soon. If the M3 issues were near fixed, they wouldn’t be showing off concept trucks and roadsters with ridiculous specs to distract people.

Mr Euro. I see your point of view.
You are thinking that the European sexy-6 (Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lotus) will not be able to sell their ware in the face of Roadster which is lot more cheaper and lot faster and also can seat 4 passengers. Oh sorry, I forgot to mention the other sexy-6 (Benz, BMW, Audi, Maserati, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo).

Yes, there are many who can afford only $200,000 and they will like to have a similar or even better toy.

And for those who can afford only $35,000 – $45,000; Model-3 production is ramping up. Having a faster car is a pride for a company and its customers.
I believe there will be few more models with lower ranges like 450 mile (700 km) and 300 mile (480 km) with appropriate pricing. After all 300 mile (500 km) is good enough for many trips.

Excuse me they built they thing of course the engineering is well along. They are bound to still be working on stuff like the battery tech and getting the software ready though. Battery tech is a constant on going process.

TBH, I’m tempted to give him the loan. If this is ICE car, I’d still be tempted.

Quite simply, there has never been any production car with this level of performance. Every high value collector’s car came with ground shaking performance. This car might truly become an automotive investment.

Biggest thing holding it back is Tesla service; should the company go under, all the black magic (aka, software) is going to be impossible to decipher. It may remain impossible as long as DMCA is in place. I suppose I can take it to Mexico should Tesla go under…

Tesla is past the point of “going under” in the sense you are describing. I think the worst case outcome now is being absorbed by a mainstream automaker at pennies on the (2017) dollar, and then either existing as a subbrand, or being slowly wound down and Plymouthed.

Oh, spare me! You naysayers latch on to a meme and remain monogamous as hell, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. The Model 3 was originally slated to start production in 2019. But demand(for the terrible Teslas) pushed the timetable. Oh, all those glowing reviews about build quality(particularly on this latest batch) and driving dynamics, suggest you’re more wrong than usual.

The hype aspect of introducing the new Roadster now is surely part of the business plan to continue raising billions of dollars to grow the business. The $250,000,000 from sales of Founders Series Roadsters is a drop in the bucket compared to the coming stock and bond sales from Tesla which will surely run into the billions in coming years to fund more factories.

It must be a cultural thing. We Europeans have been scammed for the last 5000 years so we have an inbuilt oversized scam detector. Now maybe this scam detector being oversized we should indeed relax a bit and join the new world crowd with “awesome ! cool ! wow !”
But it is not easy.

I think there isn’t any stupid intra EU fishing quota to quarrel over today. That’s why the Europeans are out trolling the Americans. The BYDs and the Teslas of the world may not be the ultimate winners – but at least they are based in the countries where the action is. The 21st century is going to be driven by frenemies US and China. We’ll let you Europeans know if we need more cheese for our parties. ?

Yup. Tesla is on track to take in well over 10 Billion in revenue this year from sales of their various products. These reservations will represent a single digit percent of income, and will fund the Roadster development itself. It has no real impact on the rest of company finances.

Even mildly successful Model 3 sales in 2018 represent an ADDITIONAL 10 Billion more in income.

Sadly, this is just more of bro-spice (just like his buddies) completely underestimating Tesla. Same story as the last decade.

If this is a hatchet job with poor fit and finish that looks like it was put together at the last minute, you may have a point. But Tesla is known for poor fit and finish, so this was probably in the works for a long time.

Exactly – I am blown away by the negativity here especially on an EV enthusiast site. You short seller losers need to find something else to do other pan Tesla in every waking moment. This car absolutely flattens any competition multi times over. The BMWs. Porsches, Jags were playing catch-up – now they are not even in the same race. 1.9 to sixty 620 mile range, 8.9 second 1/4, 4 seconds to 100 – are you kidding me? All world records – nothing can touch this car or will for many many years at which point they will improve it again. Maybe you guys should buy some options instead of shorting the stock, and while you are at it go away and play on an ICE site somewhere – my god.

BS Promises like the S which has blown away the segment for 5 years or so, or actually getting a stylish mid price range EV with hundreds of thousands of reservations lined up (yes there are production snafus as with any new model), or having the leading segment EV crossover SUV, or introducing a game changing Semi and Roadster? Right – ugh….

it’s right there in your reply “or actually getting a stylish mid price range EV with hundreds of thousands of reservations” we were promised affordable not “mid-price”. but instead I have to pay for the R&D and built-in hardware of crap I don’t care about because Musk refuses to take his Adderall.

0-60 in 1.9 seconds is mind boggling.
Bugatti’s cost $3 million while Lambo’s cost more than $500,000 and this $200,000 puppy is very cheap for those in that range. And it’s a 4 seater, so the kids can sit in the back seat.

They should have that front on the M3. The M3 front reminds me of Donald Duck somehow.
The Roadster concept is really good looking. Too bad it’s so expensive. Would have loved to see many of these on the street.

Pure fantasy. 200 kWh battery will be very heavy and give the car terrible handling.

Also, what’s the point of focusing on this car now? A $250k sports car will sell a couple of thousand units tops, it won’t make any money for Tesla at all but will require a significant investment in a time where Tesla already burns almost $500 million a month. What Tesla desperately needs is to get the model 3 going and then as quickly as possible finish up the model Y. This is a smoke and mirrors show for gullible investors and fanbois.

Using the term “gullible” suggest being fooled/tricked into something. You thinking Tesla will take the money and run? Not delivering the vehicles these people would be paying for? Perhaps just typical BB(Basher Bulls*it) on your part?

Oh, by the way, a 250 kWh pack CAN adversely affect handling(as you say) IF the battery sits too high on the chassis, or the suspension is inadequately designed. Looking at Von Holzhausen’s performance in the car last night, combined with the stated specs, seem to prove you wrong(as usual).

No. But there was side talk at the event that the 2170 cells in the Model S/X would make them into 120 or 130 kWh packs. The larger size would be needed to make up for the smaller cell count. Like most Model S/X battery upgrades, it would be announced officially once production began.

Two awsome looking and sounding autos but how and where are they going to get built with the huge cost of auto factories??
Can Tesla afford to buy or build and equip two more factories that would take a new cash injection??
Or outsource the production of the roadster to Magna who builds Porsches on contract among others and the semi to ??
With high enough orders Tesla could get some price leverage on an external manufacture to build them…

Will be interesting to see what happens with Ferai and Semi co stock prices today and over the nexr week…
Who wants to plop down a million on a Ferari or other when a 250k car now oblivarates their performance?
Who wants to buy a new deisel rig when you can save a fortune with an electric one?

The airplane yoke steering wheel tends to imply that it has rack to rack proportional steering, ie., that full right or left means 90 degrees, just like an airplane. Proportional because the steering would need to be more sensitive at the 0 degree position than at the racks.

Unsaid in this demo is if the roadster will try to chase Porsche Mission E charge times of 15 minutes. In fact the whole subject was not mentioned at all during the demo last night, even though clearly there is no way to meet the 30 minute to 400 mile Tesla Semi charge time Elon mentioned at 135kW.

Ah, the honeymoon phase of the Kickstarter project, when everything said is believed, and the world is full of promise. It’s all rainbows and unicorns. It’s only three or four years later that the frustration sets in and the incompetence and underdelivering is manifest, in typical Tesla fashion.

Yeah I’d say the 200kwh is the more accurate figure compared to 250 – after all, the original Roadster had 53 kwh (rated) to go the wildly optimistic (at the time) 244 miles. I’d usually never get more than 200 miles, yet twice I did get 246, but that was really trying, with me putting on my own LRR tires and trying to eek out the last efficiency improvements by straightening the camber of the rear wheels to decrease heat causing squirming.

(Tesla was so interested they called me to ask what tires I was using plus what I had set the camber to). But even taking the more conservative 200 miles realistic from the original Roadster, would be around 755 miles, so seeing as this has a lot more equipment to push around – 620 mile range seems reasonable if not pushed too hard.

Seeing as a barebones Roadster used to be $120,000 with taxes and destination (and it WAS barebones – the Tesla Salesman didn’t know how to put a CD in the basically aftermarket radio since he said they had never sold a TESLA for so cheap) was at the absolute limit of my finances – I’d never dream of being able to afford the new Roadster. The new one looks like a cross between an “S” and a “3; of course, I prefer the gentle lines of the original LOTUS, but that is just me.

Back in high school, when all the other guys lusted after multi-hundred horsepower muscle cars, I was perfectly satisfied with dreaming about a Karman-Ghia (VW) 40 hp convertible – Forrest Green with Beige interior. My Roadster basically duplicated my high school dream.

So I’m in the minority of not being super impressed with gobs of horsepower in a car – to me there is beauty in small things. I’ve professionally worked on motors that had ratings of 4000 hp continuous and short-time 10,000 hp, so large motors don’t particularly impress me – and as one commenter said – the record to beat is 1.8 seconds not 1.9 – not that I could care about that anyway.

But it will be something to see how many of these they actually sell. $200k or $250k is a lot of coin, as they say.

50’000 advance payment…tststs.
Will this car be able to finish a lap of the Nurnburg Ring at full speed or has it the same disadvantage as the MS that after a few minutes power is reduced automatically?

I expect some fair percentage of people paying $200k for a two-door supercar will care if it can perform at a high level for more than a few minutes at a time, whether strictly for bragging rights or because they want to take it to the track.

Excluding Porsche, a whole lot of supercars are only driven a few thousand miles a year. For example, one popular Ferrari insurance provider offers insurance where you “Choose from one of our three mileage plans -1,000, 3,000, or 6,000 miles”.

Often they are driven at speeds where you can be seen driving it, vs. taking full advantage of the performance.

For every exotic car you see at a track, you will see thousands of BMW M family, Miata and Porsche drivers.

The saddest truth about supercars is that for the most part their max performance goes mostly unused over their lifespan.

Seems to be a parallel between Musk and Trump. To divert attention from real problems and issues (M3), talk about irrelevant fantasies. Why is Tesla leadership not focused on the most important thing they should be focused on right now?